This Is Good-Recipe

Banana Coffee Cake with Chocolate Streusel Topping

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature

1 large egg

1 1/3 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 large)

3 tablespoons buttermilk or plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and an 8×8 inch baking dish.

Stir chocolate chips, brown sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon in small bowl until well blended; set streusel aside.

Sift together (or just STIR TOGETHER) all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Beat sugar, butter, and egg in a large bowl until fluffy. Mix in mashed bananas and buttermilk or yogurt. Add flour mixture and blend well.

Spread half of batter in prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with half of streusel. Repeat with remaining batter and streusel. Bake coffee cake until toothipick inserted in center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool for about 10 minutes and serve.

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I made this today, and it was very good!  The recipe and picture are from Buns in My Oven.

Should I keep posting recipes?  Comment if you like them!

Lauren Anne

Psalm 128:2 (New International Version)
 You will eat the fruit of your labor;
blessings and prosperity will be yours.

Wisdom from Ecclesiastes

I am reading through the Bible. I am currently in Ecclesiastes. I am enjoying this book very much, and would like to share with you an excerp from chapter 7. Please read it, and get out your bibles to finish the chapter.

Ecclesiastes 7-Wisdom

1 A good name is better than fine perfume,

and the day of death better than the day of birth.

2 It is better to go to a house of mourning

than to go to a house of feasting,

for death is the destiny of every man;

the living should take this to heart.

3 Sorrow is better than laughter,

because a sad face is good for the heart.

4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,

but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.

5 It is better to heed a wise man's rebuke

than to listen to the song of fools.

I plan to share scripture every week, and would love it you joined me.  Just for your information, I started posting again at Quiet Designs.  Would love to hear from you.  God Bless, Lauren Anne

Almont Tea Cakes and My Life

I was looking at different recipes, and found this one to sound very tasty.  It is almont tea cakes.  They sound like something that would go great on Christmas.  I have not made them, but may in the future.  If any of you make it, please tell me how they turn out!

Ingredients

2 cups butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

4 teaspoons almond extract

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

FILLING:

1 egg white

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup ground almonds

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Milk

Sliced almonds

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs and extract; mix well. Add flour and baking powder (dough will be soft). Chill.

For filling, in a small bowl, stir egg white, sugar, almonds and lemon juice . Remove a portion of the dough at a time from the refrigerator. Place 1-in. balls of dough into miniature muffin cups, pressing slightly into sides and bottom. Place 1/2 teaspoon of filling into each. Cover with quarter-sized circles of dough.

Brush with a little milk and top with an almond. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

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My brother and sister are going to be back from college tommorow.  I am so excited, because I have not seen them sense they left, which was in August.  My dad drove there this morning, and is staying in a hotel there overnight.  They are going to leave sometime in the morning, and after their long drive, I will see them!

Yesterday, I was listening to Narnia music.  I turned up the computor volume high, and watched my sister dance to it.  I was sitting on my knees, facing the back of the chair.  When, of course, the chair fell over with me on it.  It was like my life was ending (not really but...).  You know, you are falling and you can't do anything about it.  When I fell into the desk, and my toe earned a BEAUTIFUL (no, not really!) bruise.  Later, at dinner, my sister's foot touched my bruise.  I don't know what happened, but my foot had a ton of pain running through it.  But thankfully, it is all better now.

Vote by Commenting:  Which blog design do you like better.

My design blog: Quiet Designs or This blog: Beside Quiet Waters?

Hear My Cry

Psalm 61
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. Of David.

1 Hear my cry, O God;
listen to my prayer.

2 From the ends of the earth I call to you,
I call as my heart grows faint;
lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

3 For you have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the foe.

4 I long to dwell in your tent forever
and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.
Selah

5 For you have heard my vows, O God;
you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

6 Increase the days of the king's life,
his years for many generations.

7 May he be enthroned in God's presence forever;
appoint your love and faithfulness to protect him.

8 Then will I ever sing praise to your name
and fulfill my vows day after day.

a new design will be up soon...

and I want you to guess what colors it will be.  Go ahead!!

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I have not have much time for NaNoWriMo.  Let me refrase that.  I have had no time.  I will be busy writing over this break, but I don't think I will get very far.  My sister and brother will be back here from college, and I will not want to miss their visit!

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I will go and made some type of drink

....cold or hot....

hmm.

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Psalm 117
Praise the LORD, all you nations;
extol him, all you peoples.

I Missed by Blog-Anniversary

It was really on Novermber the 4th, but can you really expect that to be on my top priority?  I have been busy with other things such as my saxophone.  I auditioned for concert and jazz band.  Not just for my school but for around 50 schools in the region that I live in.  I prepared starting in August, and auditioned in October. 
        Last year, I auditioned for the same thing, and yet did not make it.  But thankfully, I made both the concert and the jazz band.  I earned 8th chair out of 10 chairs for concert, which I was very happy with.  Everyone could actually play their instuments WELL!  (my school band is very bad)  I made the top jazz band and earned 1st chair!! 
        I already had the concert with the concert band, and jazz band is comming up next week.  I go to the high school where it is at 7 something in the morning, and I practice with the jazz band.  Then at 1 o'clock, we have our concert.  We are going to play 3 songs.  Below are the links to the songs we are playing.  The recordings are NOT on youtube, and there are no video to go with it.  It is just a white screen, with a song player thing in the middle.  Listen to the songs.

I want EVERYONE to tell me their favorite one.
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Summertime- http://www.alfred.com/mp3/00-31496_!.mp3

Night Walk- http://www.alfred-music.com/player/BelwinMusicforJazzEnsemble2003/jem03006/player.html

The Blues Walk- http://www.halleonard.com/viewaudio.do?itemId=7011598&fileName=/common/audio/07011598.mp3

I should get some music related comments. :)

busy writing away

NaNoWriMo started on November 1.  I am at 5000 words so far.  It is so exciting!  I never knew I liked writing as much as I really and truly do.  By the end of the month on November, the NaNoWriMo word goal is 50,000 words.  Please pray that I have time everyday to write, and that I will accomplish my goal.  Thanks!  I am going to say by, and am going to go write more! 

Leave some encouraging comments for me to read!

Warning! Never Leave Butter out of a Cake

I was baking a coffee cake for my family tonight for tomorrow morning.  After 30 or so minutes of hard work, the cake was ready to be put into the oven.  While I was washing the bowls, my dad asked me if I needed 2 sticks of butter for the cake.  I looked over at him, where he was holding 2 sticks of butter.  I burst into tears after I realized that I had left the butter out of the cake.  All the hard work for a cake that doesn't even taste like one.

My mom makes mistakes a lot in cooking too.  For her last batch of bread, she forgot the salt.  After she found out what I did, she said that she forgets things all the time.  I said, "You forget the salt, and some people actually eat bread without salt, but I left out the butter, and no one eats cake without butter."  Again the tears flowed.

I guess cooking takes practice.  A lot of practice in my case.  :)

You Make THE Difference {and yes, I mean YOU}/Spanish Class

Should I change my blog look?

  Like it?  LOVE it?  Dislike it?  Can't even bare to come to my blog you dislike it so much?

Tell me!  Tell the truth.  I will not get offended.  If you want to leave an anonymous comment, do so.

And don't forget to tell me what you would want.  Cheerful?  Light?  Dark?  Green?  Don't care?

Your vote counts!

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I have a fun story to tell you.

I take spanish at my junior high.  I am in 8th grade, so this is my second year.  My teacher gave us a picture of a living room, and we had to come up with as many sentences using the verb estar and ser.  My best friend and I were partners, so we got to work right away.  There was a remote control on the television.  We were going to write the remote control is on top of the television, but...we didn't know how to say remote control.  So we had the brilliant idea of making up a word.  (i believe we said El remote controle) Then, my teacher said times up.  We had the most sentences in the class by ONE. And that one was a made up sentence because we didn't know.

Well, thankfully my teacher is very nice.  She skimmed over it, and didn't say anything about it.  :)  I guess, you needed to be there, and you need to know my best friend in order to apriciate that story. 

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Remember to Vote!

It is MORE Than Running

I can't really explain it. 

Let me back up a bit.

I LOVE running, on my own and as a race.  But even so, I feel so SATISFIED after running, and I feel so good about myself.  I feel like....I can't explain.  I feel so wonderful after I run, like I am doing something important.  I like running SO much that I would go running right now.  So much that I would run it in gym class again.

Let me back it up again.  :)

Today in gym all of the 8th grade girls ran the mile.  I got 7:08min.  My goal had been to get into the six minutes.  So, I am going to run it will the guys tomorrow, with a few of my girl runner friends.  I want to improve my time.

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BUT...running takes perserverance.  A lot of it.  It takes time, energy, and you are the one who has to force yourself to run.  It is like the reading the bible.  It takes time, energy, and YOU have to do it by yourself.

We all need to reading our bibles, and pray.  It may take away from time you need for doing other things, but you know you must do it.  Just my thoughts.

::

Lauren Anne